I loved me some Goodwill Hunting and some Bourne-ness but...as he says himself, I probably don't need to know that much about him...especially if he keeps on this...ummmm....track.

This post from Time I think sums it up. Here's a snippet.

The criticism of Damon’s comments on actors hiding their sexuality wasn’t that it was monstrous; it was simply the observation that a straight actor can “keep his private life private” while walking red carpets with his spouse, which a gay actor simply cannot. There are people out there who know more about the experiences of gay people than does Damon, and when they reacted to Damon’s comments, he simply kept talking over them, louder.

When you're the most senior monk and you loot the temple, even though I don't even go to Temple (albeit I have been there more than a church in the last decade come to think of it...) I can't really help you.

Nor do I want too (and if you think that's callous that's fine but neither did anyone in his family).

Sure I understand the fun of saying "BLACKJACK!!!!" and getting some free drinks and my butt pinched in the crowd on Saturday nights (they were a nice group of ladies visiting their grandchildren and it was a quick pinch and a smile so I never even got to know their names...) but even I wouldn't use my cover as monk to loot the temple. I mean if I had to choose between that and having to lick a booger off a dog's poop shoot with a raccoon clawing at my nether regions - well - I'm gonna close my eyes, stick my tongue out, and pray there's a good plastic surgeon just around the corner.

"As Vietnamese Americans, I feel we have a moral responsibility to help these people...Others helped us when we were in that situation. Now it is time to pay it forward.”

On the #ICareBecause Campaign

"The concept behind Nguyen’s campaign is to encourage people to post short videos of themselves saying, “I care because…” and declaring why they care about today’s Syrian refugees. They also can write it on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag '#ICareBecause.'"

Here's video from earlier this month with Duc Nguyen, Bao Nguyen, and Kieu Chinh. among many others.

1. I hope this can be used as a learning experience for everyone involved even if it is at the expense of the Asian American community (in a general sense). The speaks to the fact that even though as communities of color we share inequities, there are still differences - and that lateral oppression, prejudice, and consequences born out of misplaced POV's brought about by misunderstandings or misinformation, can and still do occur.

2. The response from Sherman Alexie I believe on a whole was genuine and truthful and I respect that.

3. At the same time, it felt a little ambiguous for the sake of ambiguity, and at moments in CYA mode.

4. While 1/2 - 3/4's of the response was dedicated to what Sherman Alexie has done and how he had chosen poems and the general writer community, the details and time spent on anything pertaining specifically to the Asian American community and the effect of his decision wasn't addressed, and I think that's important because even though the issue is about a White writer impersonating an Asian American writer, we're still not even truly addressed in the response.

5. Out of everything said in the response, I noticed that there wasn't an "I'm sorry" or "I may need to apologize" or any other statement like that even though Sherman Alexie is aware that he is "committing an injustice against poets of color, and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular".

And to be even more particular - Asian American poets.

6. "I chose a strange and funny and rueful poem written by Yi-Fen Chou, which turns out to be a Chinese pseudonym used by a white male poet named Michael Derrick Hudson as a means of subverting what he believes to be a politically correct poetry business".

When people use "politically correct" it basically means that they tire of hearing how others have been oppressed and don't want to update their own language to reflect equality - because they're lazy and feel their own entitlement slipping away into a fair and equitable playing field which does not coddle or placate to their specific needs - in this case a White Man.

In that way alone, the premise by the writer is inherently prejudiced and I don't feel, armed with that knowledge, it should have been selected.

7. While I understand the ideas behind blind readings or not wanting to know anything about a writer before you read a book because it may influence the interpretation of that text - in this context those are purely analytical and data-driven because we aren't talking about just the text. You can't argue just data and analytics because everything has a context and even Sherman Alexie himself says "Bluntly stated, I was more amenable to the poem because I thought the author was Chinese American."

The two are, and were, intertwined.

8. Here's a longer quote from the response:

"If I'd pulled the poem then I would have been denying that I gave the poem special attention because of the poet's Chinese pseudonym. If I'd pulled the poem then I would have been denying that I was consciously and deliberately seeking to address past racial, cultural, social, and aesthetic injustices in the poetry world. And, yes, in keeping the poem, I am quite aware that I am also committing an injustice against poets of color, and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular. But I believe I would have committed a larger injustice by dumping the poem. I think I would have cast doubt on every poem I have chosen for BAP. It would have implied that I chose poems based only on identity."

When I read that passage I couldn't help but think #3 above and that at the end of the day, part of the decision was about ego and vanity (which we all have), possibly economics (for himself and others) - and how those overrode the cultural and racial implications of the decision.

9. If the tables were turned, I just wonder how Sherman Alexie would feel and what he would want to hear from - well in this case himself - and I have to think he would have wanted more.

10. While I'm fine with pen-names and pseudonyms (as I too have used them) what I'm not fine with are those that are created and used for the sake of misleading others. If my pseudonym was anything other than Slanty/Slant-Eye as I've used in the past, and connoted that I was *not* an Asian American, but rather someone from the African American, or Latino communities - it would be misleading because it brings a false context to what I'm writing about - anything I'm writing about - because on face value it says I have one POV when in reality I do not.

If you're like me (just pretend for now) sometimes you fall off the grid and the next thing you know you're wondering where you are, how you got there, and if you've been there before. Thankfully there was a nice man from Texas who gave you some cash to get out of the country (because it's called an airport fee) that allowed you to finally catch up on The Asian American Film Lab 72 Hour Shootout Winners.

My Two Faces by “Inspirasian” (Top Ten Film; Most Original Use of Theme)

They've been putting these out all summer and if you haven't seen them yet, definitely worth checking out (or at least bookmarking?) as they have interviews with Nam Phan, Keiko Agena, Teppei Teranishi, and more.

I was reading this article down at the DB and it made me think again how I always hope, but in a nice and loving way because I live in peace, that people who exclude whole groups of people in their dating and relationship lives end up in relationships that kinda suck, because they really do deserve it. Not beat-you-down everyone dies kinda suck, but normal, everyday how I do get this person out of my life because I didn't know they were such an incompetent slob but we signed a lease together sort of suck.

Employees of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency who arrived to give Mayweather a random drug test after the fight’s weigh-in “found evidence of an IV being administered” to the boxer. Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett told SB Nation that USADA did not clarify to the NSAC whether Mayweather was receiving an injection when the collection agents came to his home. According to Mayweather’s medical team, the fighter was given two different vitamin mixes to treat dehydration. While the injections did not include any banned substances, IVs are still banned under WADA guidelines because they can be used to “dilute or mask the presence of another substance,” Hauser explains.

Mayweather’s medical team also told the collection agents that the IV consisted of two separate mixes. The first was a mixture of 250 milliliters of saline and multi-vitamins. The second was a 500-milliliter mixture of saline and Vitamin C. Seven hundred and fifty milliliters equals 25.361 ounces, an amount equal to roughly 16 percent of the blood normally present in an average adult male.

I don't really know what all the fuss is about. I mean if that's a penis, someone wasn't doing their job right because the shaft is connected to only one ball. It's kind of like if I put an ice cream cone upside down on my head like a unicorn with another ball dangling from my neck.

At the same time the Enterprise was kind of a big phallus anyway, always getting worked up, going into warp speed, sometimes shooting off its phasers for no good reason, and always trying to "explore" "new worlds". I mean even if the K State Marching band wasn't making an actual penis (which they do deny), maybe it's not that out of the question that some people saw one?

And by priest I mean the guy formerly known as the Subway spokesperson.

All of which lead me to the final - or beginning conclusion:

Idris Elba would be an awesome James Bond, and I have a fairly large penis.

P.S.

The non sequitur is the tool of the lazy and since my parole officer said I had to shed some pounds so he could give me a proper lap dance I do plan on catching a few movies while I wait at the drive-thru for some honey suckle waxxy shat love.

There's a good write-up of Wong Kim Ark down at the Washington Post - and obviously - very apropos:

Young men like Wong were not called “anchor babies” by critics then, but rather “accidental citizens,” said University of New Hampshire legal historian Lucy Salyer, “citizens by the accident of birth” as the dissenting justices in Wong Kim Ark’s Supreme Court case would put it.

2008 Year In Review

If you're looking for the 2008 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).

2007 In Review Posts

If you're looking for the 2007 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).

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